A small group of Firewise program staff, community representatives, state liaisons and federal staffers met recently for a "Firewise Springboard Innovations Workshop". The objective was to explore how we might sustain momentum and further the success of the Firewise Communities/USA program.
Because I tend to see the bright side of life (a former co-worker used to call me "Pollyanna in Hell"), my favorite part of this workshop was an exercise called "How Are We Excellent?" I could have told them how Firewise is excellent -- I get to work on it every day, and get to see the results of the work of neighbors helping neighbors, supported by their fire service and by their state and national land managers. Hurray for Firewise! Whoopee! Go team, go!
Sorry, got carried away with how excellent we are! But guess what -- other people besides me think that Firewise is excellent, too. Here's some of what they had to say:
Because I tend to see the bright side of life (a former co-worker used to call me "Pollyanna in Hell"), my favorite part of this workshop was an exercise called "How Are We Excellent?" I could have told them how Firewise is excellent -- I get to work on it every day, and get to see the results of the work of neighbors helping neighbors, supported by their fire service and by their state and national land managers. Hurray for Firewise! Whoopee! Go team, go!
Sorry, got carried away with how excellent we are! But guess what -- other people besides me think that Firewise is excellent, too. Here's some of what they had to say:
- Firewise presents good, reliable, and empowering information that homeowners and communities can use and build upon to prevent losses from wildfire events.
- Firewise gave us some tangible goals and motivated us to get moving on doing fire prevention and fire mitigation steps on our own properties.
- Firewise has been all pluses for us. No drawbacks at all. We have seen a very obvious change in mentality of the majority of our residents. We can measure it in the steps which have been taken in fire prevention and fire mitigation which otherwise would not have been taken.
- The answers to the WUI fire problem must reach across many sectors and many levels of decision makers, from the personal to the public, and your ability to maintain an ongoing dialogue and interaction among these various parties has always struck me as the single most enduring contribution of the Firewise program.
- Firewise materials are based on sound science and management principles, and are easily understood and accepted by mature audiences.
- Firewise is second only to Smokey Bear in public recognition of wildfire responsibilities, and its impact on public perceptions of the wildfire issues in the wildland urban interface is second to none.
I could go on and on, but I think you get the drift. Firewise is everyone's responsibility - but also everyone's success to celebrate. If you'd like more in the way of hard numbers, let me offer this excellent assortment:
- More than 220 communities now participate in the Firewise Communities/USA recognition program in 33 states.
- Nearly $6 million dollars was invested by these communities in their own safety measures last year alone - more than $14 million since 2003.
- More than 90% of communities that started participating as early as 2002 have continued to renew their recognition status. 11 of the 12 original communities have been in Firewise for the long haul - more than 5 years now.
The rest of the workshop focused on what we can be doing better, which gives us some great goals to reach for. Just wanted to reflect on the excellent place from which we have to start.
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